No man should go into battle alone: the many hands behind a 1918 Packard Army truck

David Lockard might have been the only person who dressed the part of a doughboy to go along with the 1918 Packard 3-ton Army transport truck that trundled onto the show field at the AACA’s Fall Hershey meet, but he and the truck had a whole batallion of unseen volunteers behind them.

Lockard, a Navy veteran and Packard truck collector based out of York Springs, Pennsylvania, admitted right away that the truck he presented earlier this month never saw service during the war and, in fact, came together from various bits of other Packard trucks. “It’s sorta like a Johnny Cash Cadillac,” he said.

Packard, which began building trucks in 1905, saw some of its best years for truck production in the late Teens, thanks in part to the 10,000-plus 1-1/2-ton and 3-ton varieties that the U.S. Army ordered for its Mexican campaign and for its entry into World War I. In fact, Lockard noted that in 1915, Packard produced more trucks than cars due to demand from Canada, England, France, Russia, Finland, and other allied countries.

However, like the thousands of other vehicles sent into battle during The Great War, few to none of those Packard Army trucks survive – at least none that Lockard knows of – due to the cost of sending them back home and their high scrappage rate. So about 20 years ago Lockard initiated a project that he’d longed to undertake for many years before that.

“The gentleman I purchased my 1920 Packard truck from had a brother who was killed in the closing days of World War I in the epic Meuse-Argonne final major battle of the war,” Lockard wrote in an information sheet on the truck. “Ralph (the previous owner) had bought it in 1932 and never restored it or got it running. Ralph knew Packard was a big supplier to the U.S. Army and remembered his brother by purchasing a relic from the past. After realizing my Packard truck was built two years after World War I ended, I had the wild idea of restoring a World War I truck.”

With none to find, he turned to the Citizens Motor Car Company-America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio, for which Lockard served as curator. Through the museum officials, who gave Lockard their blessing, and his own network of Packard truck contacts, Lockard began to collect parts from here and there. The basics of the truck came from Don Meltz of Hudson, New York, who donated a complete truck with a unusable frame and incorrect wheels. Ron Carey of Calgary, Alberta, came through with a usable frame and the correct wheels and transported them to York Springs himself.

A major source of parts, including the radiator and hood, came from Lance Swank of Palmyra, New York, whose father, Grover, had restored a Packard truck for Winross and held on to many of the spare parts for years afterward.

To put all the parts together, though, Lockard needed a body and some sort of reference. The latter came in the form of an original set of April 1917 U.S. Army War Department body plans that Tim Gosling of England donated. Dave Jacoby of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, then used the plans to build the body using wood and steel donated by Coyle Lumber of Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania, and Lemoyne Sleeper of Lemoyne, Pennsylvania. Lockard seemed especially impressed by Jacoby’s work on the bows for the canvas top, which Jacoby constructed using five layers of steam-bent yellow pine.

Other contributors to the project include Clyde Walters of Canton, Ohio (engine rebuilding); Paul Kenific of Salisbury, Maryland (welding); Ted Valpey of Dover, New Hampshire (funding for a new radiator); Marshall Katz of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania (funding for the magneto rebuild); George Lupfer of Carlisle, Pennsylvania (transmission rebuild); Tom Schlarb of Topton, North Carolina (custom electric starter); Dave and Bill Bennett of Salisbury, Maryland (transportation); and Charlie Linus of York Springs (labor).

In all, it took 14 years to finish construction of the solid-tired, wooden-wheeled truck. While it runs and drives, an experience made somewhat simpler thanks to the addition of the custom electric starter (“The Army had plenty of young men to crank these trucks,” he said. “If one guy’s arm wore out, they just had the next guy take over.”), Lockard reports that the 32.4hp 349.9-cu.in. four-cylinder engine in the 17,000-pound truck can only manage a top speed of 17 MPH, more than enough for a vehicle with mechanical brakes on the driveshaft and rear wheels only.

These days, the truck resides with Lockard and makes occasional jaunts out for parades, including for the World War I centennial parade this Memorial Day in Washington, D.C.

Steve in PVsays:

October 21, 2015 2:22 pm

WillyJPsays:

October 21, 2015 4:05 pm

If anyone knows, I would be interested to hear how this Packard built truck resembles, or differs from, the Standard B “Liberty” Truck.

Our Oregon Army National Guard Museum has an active and talented group of vehicle restorers. Among other projects, they’ve done a beautiful restoration of a 1917 “Liberty Truck” that they trundle out (good word for these 15 mph top speed beasts!) for parades, Guard events and shows. I understand that it has won some kind of award for military vehicle restoration excellence.

According to Wikipedia, the Liberty was a joint design of the Quartermaster Corps & the SAE. Reportedly 9500 were built by 15 different manufacturers and 7500 went overseas. I’ve heard the comment that the Liberty Truck project was the birth event of the “Military-Industrial Complex”

This Packard looks a LOT like the Oregon Guard’s Liberty (which was built in 3 version I understand). So I’m wondering, is this Packard one of the “Liberty” production or is it a different animal. Just curious as I find these lovingly restored examples of the dawn era of vehicle production fascinating!

Jack Batessays:

October 21, 2015 5:03 pm

If Packard trucks were anything close to their autos they were great vehicles. As a kid during the 40’s and 50’s friends of mine owned Packards and we certainly drove them to the limits. They withstood our youth and never failed.

Jim Benjaminsonsays:

October 21, 2015 9:25 pm

A local pioneer machinery show has a GMC ambulance with a placque on the toeboard that indicates it was built by Hupmobile. Anyone got any further info on these WWI military vehicles? Any magazine stories or histories that can be accessed?

WillyJPsays:

October 22, 2015 1:41 pm

Jim:
Having been intrigued by seeing our local NG’s restored Liberty Truck, I read up a bit on the Liberty Truck story recently. The SAE came forward and volunteered the design assistance of the Society to the Army. Once the std. design was settled, a whole consortium of builders and component suppliers was enlisted to build them. Because this took awhile, and there were established builders like Packard already in the market, the Army also purchased models available in the market (both in the US and in France). But the story of how an Army led consortium developed and built a std. design (similar to what was done with the Springfield rifle and later with the M-1) was very interesting to me. Especially when one writer pointed out that this was really the birth of the “military industrial complex.”

As you’ll see in there in the truck section (p. 496), besides the “Standard B” (Liberty) the Army DID buy “Packards”.

The question I asked above, which I hoped maybe the author of the article could respond to, was whether or not THIS truck in the article was a Standard B/Liberty, BUILT by Packard, or whether is was a proprietary Packard, designed AND built, truck.

WillyJPsays:

October 22, 2015 1:51 pm

That reference I cited in my reply above, besides giving the entire list of Army owned trucks, 1917-18, tells the WHOLE story of Army vehicles (and all other “munitions” as well for that matter).

The interesting thing was that, because there were multiple Army Corps. (Medical, Signal, Transport, etc.) ALL needing vehicles urgently, they SEPARATELY worked on the supply problem and, much to the angst of the Gnl. Staff, they EACH developed their own vehicle supply lines, standards, specs, etc. The Std. B/Liberty was a project of the Transport Corps. and the ambulance story is entirely separate!! You can read all about it in that reference.

Robert DeMarssays:

October 21, 2015 10:40 pm

There are Several impressive Packard Trucks in Ft Lauderdales ‘Classic Car Museum’ (it’s all Packard), founded by the late Art Stone – its a must see Collection, and beautifully maintained.
I’ve never heard exactly WHY Packard stopped producing Trucks – Mercedes sure didn’t !
Sales naturally would would have fallen, post WW1. Maybe Management thought it tarnished Packards luxury image — again, Mercedes didn’t !
And after our Packard Merlin V12 Engined P51s and Lancaster Bombers blew MBenz to smitherines in WW2, the BUYING of Studebaker, (no Merger, Packard wrote a check- later to find Studes Books were cooked) – then renaming it ‘Studebaker-Packard’ and our short sighted Eisenhower run govt. showed its Wartime Country saving, appreciation by letting Legendary ‘Master Motor Builders’, Packard die !
And so began the fall of Detroit !

Don Hayessays:

October 23, 2015 9:04 am

The truck was the hero of the Battle of Verdun which proved the value of the automobile in wartime and that its use went beyond a pleasure vehicle. Constant convoys of trucks along “The Sacred Way” brought men, supplies, and even kitchen trucks to the front line so the French and British could resist the German attack. I saw this truck at Hershey and added its photo to my history class lecture.